Dr. Mukund Joshi, MD recieves a Lifetime Achievement Award presented to him on behalf of AARI by Dr. Vikram Dogra, president, AARI, and Dr. Jagan Ailinani.

AARI members gathered at the Gaylord India Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois for the annual AARI dinner and meeting that included the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to Mukund Joshi, MD. He received this award for his leadership in radiology and ultrasound in particular for more than 30 years. He received a standing ovation from the over 100 AARI members in attendance at the November 27 event.

Members and radiologists came from near and far: (l-r) Dr. Lorenzo Derchi, MD from Italy, Dr. Kawooya from Uganda, Dr. Mukund Joshi with Lifetime Achievement Award, Dr. Dogra, president, AARI, from Rochester, New York, and Dr. Aslan from Turkey.

There were foreign dignitaries from Italy, Africa and Turkey.

At the dinner a new president and new officers were installed.

As evidenced by the ever-increasing attendance to the annual meetings, this event certainly has become the most successful and much awaited event of the association. This year was no different, with over 200 attendees from not only the US, but from all over the world including India, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

The next AARI anuual meeting will be November 2008 in Chicago during RSNA. The exact time and place will be announced later.

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Message from the President, 2007

Vikram Dogra, MD, president, AARI

Dear Colleagues:

I would like to thank each and every one of you for your support in making the 2006 AARI Society Meeting in Chicago a great success. The meeting for the next year will be at the same venue. Your comments and suggestions regarding the format of the meeting are welcome.

As President of AARI, ask for your liberal support for the following:

AARI Visiting Scholarship

At present we are sponsoring one candidate from India for six months and this year the recipient is Dr. Sachi Verma. Society members and other members of the Indian community are invited to participate in a newly created fellowship by contributing to this educational mission. An established AARI Fellowship will help us sponsor more radiologists from India. Please feel free to contact me at Vikram_Dogra@urmc.rochester.edu

AARI Sponsored CME in India

We have been sponsoring CME Courses in India in conjunction with local hospitals. Last year, the CME Course at Nagpur was a great success and was attended by more than 200 radiologists. For those who are interested in being faculty at AARI sponsored CME courses please forward your E-mail address and area of interest to Dr. Paspulati ( Paspulati@uhrad.com), Chair, CME Committee. My intention is to sponsor at least two courses per year and to accomplish this we extend our invitation to the Indian Radiology Community in India to avail of this opportunity to foster better and closer ties with radiologists working in America.

Society Revenue

At present our source of revenue is your contribution towards the annual membership ($250 for life). I do not know even one professional organization in America that charges this amount even as their annual fee. Most societies charge at least $300 per year as annual dues. If we have to move our society beyond one dinner event we need to think of generating additional revenues, through increased sponsorships (we have to create a value, before we can market ourselves) and creating other avenues of income such as an annual CME course. If we all commit to attending the course, it can become great revenue source for the society. Alternatively, we can also consider combining our CME course with some other small society such that it is financially more viable. I would certainly like to hear your comments and suggestions above all, I seek your participation. Please E-mail your views to Vikram_Dogra@URMC.Rochester.edu

Expanding the Membership Base

Neeti Suri has done a wonderful job in maintaining an up-to-date database of members with help of Grant and I certainly want to recognize them. I would request each member of AARI to bring one additional member to the society this year.

Named Contributions

Many of our colleagues are very successful in their carrier and I would like invite them to consider donating seed money for a named fellowship or sponsored research.

In the end I would like thank, Anil Khosla, Ajay Sood, Srikanth Mahakali, Roger Rodrigues and Neeti Suri for their continued dedication and support to the society. I would like give special recognition to Uma Prasad for timely help in filing all the taxes for the society. I would also like to take this opportunity in thanking my Indian Colleagues who attended the AARI dinner for their active participation and collaboration.

Wishing everyone, a very very Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Vikram

Vikram Dogra, MD
President AARI